Batman: Galactic Knight - Garthling
by HammondEggleson
Summary: Take Batman and put him in the universe of David Brin's Uplift Saga. Things are finally starting to turn around for the world of Gaath'm, but the Tandu have other plans as they send a dangerous Gathling (Neo-gorrilla) mercenary after the caped crusader.


Batman: Galactic Knight

"Garthling"

Glossary

Uplift: the process in which an alien race "adopts" a less evolved species and raises them to sapience via genetic engineering and selective breeding. Every sapient race belongs to a lineage of patrons and clients going back over two billion years.

Wolfling: A race that achieved sapience on their own without uplift. Humans are the only known surviving wolfling race at present.

Rothan: a race of criminal con artists that have a following of humans (called Daneks) who believe the Rothan are humanity's long lost patrons.

Psi-glyph: a type of living telepathic thought used by Tymbrimi as a form of non-verbal communication. Glyphs are weaved by a set of tendrils sprouting on each temple called a corona.

Prologue

I would say our story starts shortly after nightfall in Gaath'm, but there's one problem. Night never really falls over Gaath'm, at least not in the traditional sense. What happens on this world is more like going from dim twilight to pitch black. I say this because this colony's eponymous capital city just happens to be placed parallel to the orbit of the planet's moons, and thus the city gets more than it's fair share of eclipses. Being surrounded by mountains doesn't help, either. In retrospect, the Terrans on the supervisory committee for the Gaath'm Project should have seen this coming when representatives of the Soro, who only decades prior were reticent to even admit we Terrans were fully sapient, offered to oversee the urban planning of Gaath'm's capital as a gesture of peace. With the memories of the Siege of Earth that only ended a few years prior, I suppose it was only natural that we would welcome this turn of events all to readily.

Such a move was also good for the cosmopolitan sentiment behind the joint human-Tymbrimi Gaath'm project. In the wake of the events involving sooners from a distant, fallow world called Jijo, a lot of people in the galaxies were willing to try a cultural experiment by creating a colony world that would be leased to multiple races and seeing what innovations could come from it. For the first century after its founding, Gaath'm enjoyed a pretty impressive degree of economic prosperity as the new world quickly became a galactic hub for all sorts of trade and commerce. Then things started to get a little complicated.

The Tandu and Jophur have had it in for us since day one, and the newfound popularity Earth had been enjoying since the Cataclysm did nothing to change that. So, the ambitious human-Tymbrimi experiment to rehabilitate planet Gaath'm made a very attractive target for our enemies. The initial economic damage was inflicted by the blockades and unilaterally enforced sanctions. Sociologists are still scratching their heads trying to explain what happened next – why, exactly, things went from inconvenient to catastrophic.

All anyone knows is that once crime and corruption gained a foothold with our economic decline, it spread like wildfire. Not a single facet of Gaath'm's infrastructure was left untouched. Some subscribe to conspiracy theories involving memetic psi-plagues. The more conservative galactics like to think it's because wolflings are inherently flawed and incapable of making a healthy civilization. Over the centuries, a lot of us were starting to believe that. That all started to change ever since he showed up.

Which brings us to the here and now, with you asking me what every merchant at every spaceport asks of me when they hear where I'm from. You want a Batman story. You want to here about that Neo-Bat, the Wolfling Crusader, Gaath'm's own Dark Knight, and you'll accept no other form of payment. Well, I think you'll like this one…

Part one

Rojim was starting to grow impatient when he finally saw the Tandu shuttle emerge from an Episiarch's portal, underneath the vaulted canopy of the private shipyard. This bizarre ability of the Tandu's clients was very convenient when one needed to avoid detection at all costs. He had taken a month arranging this meeting, and he knew that the Tandu were already familiar with the Daneks' various fronts, including these clandestine docks. There should be no reason for this tardiness. Even his facial symbiont was having difficulty hiding his scowl as five of the mantis-like beings and their Episiarch emerged from yet another, smaller, wormhole of non-reality.

"Did my instructions not adequately emphasize the importance of punctuality for this meeting?" asked the Rothan in his usual, politely earnest Rothan manner of speaking.

"This inconvenience is not our fault. Our acceptor grew suddenly ill and took longer than usual to scan the area." Replied the tallest Tandu.

"Inconvenience is an understatement!" snapped Rojim. "You're fortunate I didn't cancel the entire transaction! You asked us for some of the most sensitive information in the galaxies. We have put so much at risk simply by possessing this data."

"Then allow us to placate your self-righteous impatience by proceeding with the transaction."

With that, the Tandu gestured to one of his robots that then hovered forward with a large trunk. Rojim opened the trunk and inspected its contents. After a few moments he turned the robot hovering at his side.

"The data cube…" he beckoned.

The robot promptly produced a small, blue cube that, once in Rojim's slender, elegant hand, began to rapidly flash then suddenly burst open as a small, winged, mammalian creature screeched out and began to circle above their heads.

In that moment, everyone present was filled with dread. Even though it was a creature native to Earth, it had become all too recognizable to Gaath'm's criminals over the last few years. The bat continued to circle for a few seconds until all of the lights suddenly went out. It was at that moment that Rojim knew it was over. "Still, for honor's sake, I must hide my fear and make a final stand…" Rojim thought to himself.

Meanwhile, one of the smaller Tandu hastily contacted the shuttle with his transmitter, asking why the acceptor hadn't alerted them, and why all but one of the robots had malfunctioned. His reply came in the form of a loud, clunking sound as the shuttle's gravitics failed. The four Tandu watched in stunned silence as their spacecraft plummeted and sank in the water bellow.

The tallest Tandu then noticed something was amiss.

"Where are the Episiarch and its handler?" he asked aloud.

"They're probably incapacitated and hidden somewhere," said Rojim. "But do not panic, the Batman practically depends on it. Be as I am: collected and reserved."

"The expression beneath your symbiont says otherwise," a voice growled in his ear.

In one instant, the smooth, peaceful features of Rojim's face were yanked away, revealing the knotted, rough, spiny dermis beneath, and with it the panic in his eyes. He screamed in terror and fired blindly into the darkness. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the smell of burning Tandu.

The remaining Tandu stared in surprise as the Rothan was quickly engulfed in a globule of an orange jelly-like substance.

"It seems the Rothan has been placed in stasis by one of the Batman's weapons," said the crippled Tandu.

The relative quiet was suddenly cut short as a Tandu's sharp cry of terror sounded from some place further off in the shipyard. The large Tandu drew one of his officer blades, swiftly decapitated the crippled member of their group, then instructed the remaining two to follow him in the direction of the screech. The crippled one was left behind to generate a new head, with only Rojim frozen inside an amber globule of folded time as company.

The remaining Tandu found the Episiarch's handler unconscious and suspended upside-down from a nearby freighter's loading crane. Its limbs were bound and visibly broken in some places. Using a spotlight from the robot, one of the subordinate Tandu cut its broken brother down with a heat ray from his weapon. The tall one wasted no time in raising his blade to amputate yet another head before being interrupted.

"Pardon my rude intrusion on your judgment, esteemed captain," it rattled in Gal Eleven, "but are you aware that this will be your twentieth temporary execution today?"

"Negative," replied the Tandu captain. "The previous severance was not a reprimand. I did it only to protect what information he had from discovery should the Batman interrogate him and so that he would grow a better set of brain stalks."

"Understood," quipped the smaller one.

The leader raised its blade once more, and solemnly sliced through the handler's neck. When it was finished, the captain threw back its head and ratcheted a cry, filled with a pride and fury that had dwelled in every Tandu since millions of years before discovery and uplift by their patrons. The towering Tandu had just issued a challenge to ritual combat.

Without warning, something heavy and fast struck the Tandu captain from above. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to daze it. Before the capy\tain could begin to regain its bearings, something kicked the insectoid's two front legs from under him, causing him to fall forward – and face first into an invisible uppercut.

Then they saw him, all of them for the first time. The light seemed to twist and ripple, giving way to a tall humanoid shape, covered in black, metallic armor, with two straight long points extending from each side of the back of his head and two glowing, neon blue eye-ports. This was no myth from spacer lore. This strange being of intergalactic renown was most definitely real, and it wanted them. It was the Batman

Refusing to be intimidated by what some claim is a human, the imposing Tandu stepped forward and swung his blades horizontally in opposite directions. Or, he would have if Batman hadn't caught the swords in his gauntlets' hooks. Batman glared past the blades, into the Tandu's six eyes as they struggled, blades locked in gauntlet hooks.

"I accept," he growled.

With one flex of his arm, the left still-caught blade was wrenched aside. Batman seized his opening, jumped, and delivered two simultaneous kicks the alien's thorax, launching it backwards. Before it even had a chance to stand up, the Batman was upon it again, pummeling its brain stalks.

" _He's unarmed,"_ realized he Tandu captain as one of his brains blinked unconscious. _"This insane infidel has the audacity to attack me with nothing but his hands! How dare he! This wolfling will pay for his impudence."_

Fuelled by the rage of this injury to its pride, the captain flung Batman to the side with broad wave of its arm. It then lurched forward wildly slashing at its enemy. Batman deftly countered each of the alien's swipes, but let the Tandu continue for a few seconds to get a feel for his enemy's moves.

Batman's cowl's sensors were indicating that the alloy used to construct the Tandu's weapons was nearly unbreakable. Not only did he lack the weapons to match them, more importantly, the blades could cut through almost anything.

" _I could use that to my advantage,"_ Batman thought to himself as he eyed a large tank of pressurized gas. His scanners indicated that the gas was one commonly used in cryogenics. The Boyle Cryogenics label on the tank was also a good sign. Batman waited for his moment, then seized the Tandu's arm and directed its momentum into the tank of cryo-gas.

As anticipated, the scimitar-like weapon sliced through the thick metallic shell and unleashed a jet of frigid gas on the insectoid that knocked it back. The Tandu captain staggered and struggled trying to regain its footing. Batman could see that the galactic fanatic's exoskeleton had become frosty and brittle. Nonetheless it stood back up, limping forward, driven on only by the feeling of holy, righteous rage.

" _Insolent Terran half-beast!"_ the patron-class fanatic exclaimed defiantly, _"Do you truly believe your primitive trickery can cripple me?"_

"You just don't understand," Batman remarked in a tone of mild disappointment. He reached his right arm across to intercept the Tandu's right. "This isn't a shipyard." Now intercepting the left arm, "this is an operating table." Now uncrossing his arms and in doing so, crossing the alien's, "and I'm the surgeon!" With one great twist and an icy crack, Batman broke off the Tandu's arms.

Now Batman wielded the scimitar-like blades, and quickly severed the zealot's remaining limbs. He looked up from his defeated opponent, in the direction of the robot's light. With a quick wave of his wrist, a small projectile shot out of his gauntlet and attached itself to the hovering machine. A split-second later, the robot short-circuited, deactivated, and fell to the ground. Now illuminated only by the moonlight reflecting off the water's rippling surface, he glowered at the two remaining Tandu.

Suddenly, the limbless Tandu captain grated something in Gal Eleven. Batman's cowl promptly displayed the Anglic translation: "ACTIVATE THE DETONATERS! ACTIVATE THE DETONATORS!" Batman quickly glanced at the two standing Tandu and noticed the small metal collars on their necks. One of them flicked a switch on his weapon.

"No!" shouted Batman, but it was too late. A small red light rapidly flashed, then all three aliens' heads exploded..

 _"The remaining Tandu in the shuttle are too devout to break under standard interrogation, and the others will have no memories when they generate new heads,"_ Batman thought as he assessed the situation. _"Episiarchs and Acceptors are all insane, won't have any reliable information. That leaves me with the robots, and the Rothan. They're much less dogmatic and more cynical than the Tandu. Conventional interrogation should do fine."_

When Rojim came to, he found himself in pitch darkness. The sound of a breathing apparatus was the only noise in the blackness; was he in a spacesuit? He tried to move, but found that he had been bound to some sort of long cylindrical object, and for some reason, he had no sense of which way was up. Finally, he called out.

"Where am I? What do you want from me?"

"I want answers," the same cold, growling baritone voice from before said in Rojim's ear. Although it was different this time, like it was coming from an audio transmitter of some sort. "Since your Tandu associates decapitated themselves shortly after you crippled one of them, I get to devote all my efforts for those answers to you. You should feel special."

"Release me, ungrateful client," the Rothan shot back. Then, more calmly and collected, "This is not the proper way to treat a member of one's patron race. How unfortunate you are to be so blind, for the evidence of your ancient scriptures plainly demonstrates that we are said patrons."

"Yeah, and I taught the Hoon how to umble."

"What are you talking about?"

"That's a form of wolfling humor called sarcasm. As a patron of the human race, it might be wise to get acquainted with the concept."

With that, the darkness was split as airlock doors opened, and the blinding lights of Gaath'm's night side came into focus.

About a hundred meters away, Bruce Wayne grinned in mild amusement as he turned down the volume of the slave circuit monitering feed in the cockpit of the Batwing. He gave the alien a few moments to finish screaming after realizing where he was: suspended from the small cargo bay of the Tandu shuttle, strapped to a missile at a low orbit above the lights of Gaath'm City.

Rojim had either calmed down or run out of breath. Either way, Batman decided to press on with his interrogation before all the oxygen in his prisoner's life support suite was used up.

"Now, you can either start telling me why the Tandu wanted the Jophur's genome so badly, or I could just remotely activate the projectile you're strapped to, and let some child make a wish upon your blazing carcass as the atmosphere incinerates you. What's it going to be?"

"I will never betray my own, especially not to some savage wolfling like you! I know you've never killed anyone," the Rothan said rigidly.

"No body, no record. So, if you're not going to talk, I guess you don't really need all that excess oxygen I gave you."

Batman selected a command from his holo-display, and Rojim's helmet quickly opened. After a few seconds, he resealed the helmet and continued.

"Now that you've had some quality time with the vacuum, are you ready to talk?" Batman inquired, the tone in his voice growing more threatening.

"Y-you can't do this!" pleaded the Rothan. "You'll cause me to suffer stress atavism!"

"Dross like you are so close to pre-sapience that it wouldn't matter."

The rocket ignited and launched the information broker towards the planet at supersonic speeds.

"Stop, stop! I'll talk! I'll talk!" shrieked the extraterrestrial.

The rocket promptly deactivated. Batman let Rojim be carried a little further by the momentum before activating the Batwing's tractor beam.

"No," Batman whispered as he started reeling the terrified criminal in. "You're going to sing."

"Yes sir," whimpered Rojim.

" _At least he understands metaphors,"_ the Batman thought to himself.

Part two

Selinakyl watched the museum guard from her hiding spot as she had hundreds of times before. Nonetheless, she studied him intently, letting her corona get a feel for his aura as he watched the surveillance monitors. As always, she let none of his subtle idiosyncrasies, physical or psychic, go unnoticed. Then, when she had constructed a sound profile of her quarry, she knew it was time to pounce.

She focused her mind as the waving tendrils of her corona started to weave a new psi-glyph above her head. It was similar to countless other glyphs Selinakyl had crafted, and like all the others, it was still the first of its kind, customized for the unique psychic traits of its target. The making of every glyph was always a new experience, a new challenge, but this was good. The challenge was what she wanted. Even by Tymbrimi standards, Selinakyl was exceedingly adaptable.

"Mouser" was the name she had for these types of glyphs, and she watched in anticipation as her newly created mouser elegantly bounded forth from the tool crate Selinakyl had hidden herself in. The glyph stalked around the guard, batting and teasing at the fringes of his aura, inducing subconscious tremors of suspicion in his mind. Then it made its move, leapt up, and rested on the security feed holo-display. The guard blinked, unsure if what he had seen was real, or if was he finally cracking from working night shift. Had he really just seen a stack of Jophur rings assemble itself and run out of view? By now the glyph was curled up on top of the human's head, a trailing tendril resting over his eyes.

The mouser faded away into the man's head as he abruptly got up and left the security room. Selinakyl grinned and silently crept out of the crate in one fluid movement. As she approached the security network controls, Selinakyl took a data cube out of her belt, inserted it, and got to work shutting down the alarms and sensors around the Pharaoh's diamond.

"I'll bet there are plenty of wealthy Synthians who would pay quite nicely for such a priceless pre-contact artifact," a familiar voice said from behind her. Selinakyl expressed her contempt for the universe in the form of the glyph l'yuth'tsaka, accompanied by a human eye-roll.

"What do you want? I'm a little preoccupied," she said impatiently as she turned around. Beneath the impatience, however, Batman could hear underpinnings of anxiety in Selinakyl's voice. He made a mental note of this and pressed on.

"Your fence sold you out pretty quickly, but he didn't know anything about your previous deal with the Rothans that was referred to in the short-term archives of one of the robots. So if you want me to give you a five dura head start before I set off all the alarms in this wing, you'll tell me what those schematics were for, and how it's tied to the Johur's genome."

"You're the detective, why don't you figure it out?" Selinakyl sighed nonchalantly as she strolled towards Batman, swaying her hips human style. She knew this distraction tactic was useless against this particular human male, but she decided it would be fun to flirt a little before things got ugly. Batman didn't need his cowl's sensors to detect the gheer hormones adapting Selinakyl's body for combat.

" _Something's wrong,_ " Batman thought to himself. " _She hasn't resorted to fighting me this quickly in years._ " Selinakyl licked her lips while her sharpened nails thickened and extended.

"How good of you to join us, Dr. Quinzel," welcomed the burley Thennanin security officer.

"I suppose there's a reason you called me to the medical ward in the middle of my sleep cycle," replied Harleen Quinzel, trying to be as polite as she could to the stodgy galactic given the circumstances.

"Our scanners detected a badly damaged transport cruiser emerging from hyperspace…"

"-And several of the passengers were members of various Thennanin client races," Harleen interjected, "thus compelling you to circumvent normal security protocols and allow the crippled ship to dock here at Blackgate Deep Space Penal Facility. Your messenger robot told me the whole story on the way down here. What I want to know is: why do you need a psychiatrist from the Arkham wing to assist in basic medical treatment?"

"I actually don't know why you're here either," replied the burley reptilian. "One of the passengers requested your presence by name. If you'll follow me, his gurney is just down the hall."

When they arrived, the sight of a large humanoid covered in a coat of short, black fur greeted them. He lay there taking deep labored breaths, and trembling as if severely malnourished. He looked very out of place in this crowd of tourists, traders and diplomats. This was in part due to the flack vest, utility pants, and combat boots he was wearing, but also because of translucent, black-tinted membrane that was stretched over his head and glowing a menacing shade of crimson around his eye sockets. Despite his unusual appearance, it was unmistakable what he was.

"But… I don't know any gorillas," said Dr. Quinzel, sounding both guarded and confused.

A disappointed sigh escaped the officer's neck vents.

"Woops! My mistake! I mean I don't know any Garthlings," said Harleen with a forced chuckle to mask her embarrassment. " _Come on, Harleen! The bipedal, sapient ones have been called Garthlings for three centuries, ever since being adopted for uplift by the Thennanin during the Garth incident. You know this!"_ thought Dr. Quinzel as she silently chided herself.

" Oh, it's quite… all right… Dr. Quinzel," the Garthling finally said through labored breaths. He spoke with a voice that sounded like the moaning hull of a primitive Terran sea vessel, and spoke Anglic with a peculiar accent. It vaguely reminded Harleen of a recording of a pre-contact Briton she had heard in a historical documentary. He entered a command into the small screen of a brace on his forearm then continued.

"It's forgivable… when one considers your… upbringing on Earth. I'd wager I'm the first Garthling you've ever met." His breathing and speech were now growing steadier, his trembling extremities steadying to a chillingly sudden calm.

"Y-you're right" Harleen stammered. "But how did you know…"

"-I will explain in due time, good doctor," said the colossal primate, now rising from the hovering gurney. Harleen could now see what looked like a metallic chain of vertebral implants starting at a nozzle-like protrusion on the back of his skull and trailing down the length of his spine, with thick, neon green catheters sprouting out from the exo-spine and plugging into his shoulders, triceps, and trapezius.

For reasons she wasn't quite certain of, the simian who only a minute or two ago seemed so pitiful, now made her feel as if she was in imminent danger as he towered before her.

Selinakyl gave a small grin when she emerged from the vent onto the rooftop of the museum and saw Batman's hover-bike parked just where she thought it would be. There was no time for her to gloat, however, as she heard the sirens of the GCPD. They were still distant but closing in fast. She had already gotten lucky when she managed to swipe Batman's vehicle access card during their scuffle in the closed quarters of the security room and decided it was best not to tempt Ifni as she hopped onto the sleek, metallic steed. She lowered the goggles on her thief's visor and flew from the museum, gravitics and plasma jets firing at full throttle.

A flashing light on the Batpod's miniature holo-display alerted Selinakyl to yet another dilemma: the hovercraft was carrying extra weight. The Batpod simply wasn't going fast enough for the amount of power she was giving the engines. Selinakyl hurriedly glanced around. Whatever was causing this drag could spell the difference between escape and capture.

Then she saw it. Batman, winged cape unfurled and rigid, was para-gliding from the back of the Batpod by a thin cable he had somehow managed to attach to the vehicle. To make it worse, he was steadily reeling himself closer to her.

"Never underestimate a wolfling's capacity for improvising," Selinakyl said to herself.

The Tymbrimi thief hurriedly searched for a means to shake off her pursuer, and found it in an oncoming air traffic stream flowing beneath her. She swooped down and into the stream, swiftly weaving between the various flying transports. Selinakyl coordinated her agile shifts to be sudden enough that they would have a good chance of leaving Batman in the flight path of each vehicle.

When the coordinated navigation computers of Gaath'm's commuters started to adapt the traffic flow to Selinakyl's presence, she wasted no time in pulling out before the police monitoring network detected the traffic anomaly created by her stunt. Selinakyl laughed in thrilled delight from the gheer rush of her daring escape. She peered over her shoulder to verify her success, only to see Batman crouched on the back fender of the air bike.

He wasted no time reaching over Selinakyl's shoulder and entering a command into the batpod's controls. A pair of restraints quickly emerged and clamped down around the Tymbrimi thief's wrists.

"Are you kidding me?" Selinakyl exclaimed.

"We need to talk," glowered Batman. "Now, why don't you set us down in that gangway over there before I change my mind and signal the cops to your location."

Selinakyl signed a glyph of grudging compliance as she began decreasing the air bike's velocity and altitude. Once they had landed, Batman removed the key card and began to question his captive.

"Something's got you scared, Selinakyl. I haven't seen you this anxious to get away in a while," said Batman. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Listen Bats, I like you, so I'm going to tell you this right now: this is not something you want to get involved in," replied Selinakyl. "If you know what's good for you, you'll let me go and make yourself scarce for the next few weeks."

"We both know that's not how I do things."

"You don't understand, Batman. These are dangerous people. You've never faced anyone like this."

"That may be the case for you Selinakyl, but I think you're forgetting -"

"He knows who you are, Bruce!"

Several seconds passed in which neither of them said anything. Finally, Batman spoke.

"Who else has he told?"

"He never told anyone anything, wants to keep it a secret. It has to do with some sort of personal obsession he's got with you. I found out when I went snooping through his computer. He tried to kill me, and then took Holly hostage to make me keep my mouth shut when I got away. Now he says he'll kill her if I don't leave Gaath'm and stay out of his way."

"Who is _he_?" Batman pried.

"A mercenary hired by the Tandu to kill you, but to call him a merc is a bit of an understatement. You've probably heard about him already. This Garthling has been making quite a name for himself."

The hulking Garthling made his way toward Dr. Quinzel and her Thennanin escort, each footstep sending a small tremor through the floor. While Harleen was fighting of her seemingly unbidden anxiety towards the mighty primate, the Thennanin guard maintained his usual calm, stoic demeanor. After all, why should he fear a beloved member of his clan's newest client species?

"Before proceeding any further, I must make certain," began the masked neo-gorilla. "You are Dr. Harleen Quinzel, primary psychiatrist to patient zero of the Arkham wing?"

"That's correct," replied Harleen, her voice almost a whisper.

"Excellent," he replied. With a sudden swipe of his hand, the Garthling snatched the Thennanin's communicator and spoke into it. "Infiltration unit one, I have located the doctor. Have you managed to upload our program to the penal facility's mainframe?"

"Affirmative sir," replied a Paha voice.

"Splendid. Let us proceed as planned."

"What is the meaning of this? What plan are you talking about?" demanded the confused Thennanin.

Without warning, the masked client clapped his patron's head between his giant hands, stunning him. The alien shouted in pain, but was cut off as he was knocked to the floor by a thuggish backhanded swing of the Garthling's forearm. Then, with one brutal stomp of his heel to the back of the guard's neck, the Garthling did the unthinkable and murdered his patron.

"You atavistic monster!" Harleen screamed over the alarms that were now blaring throughout the station. "What kind of sick animal kills his own patron?"

Before the ape could answer, a door to the infirmary slid open and a team of Thennanin guards rushed in. Without hesitation, the beast dispatched the guards, executing a flurry of moves with cold, effective lethality. Now he turned to the petite human psychiatrist who was still stunned in horror. With one effortless shove, he sent her flying through the doorway and down the corridor, through the now unsealed panopticon entrance and into the zero gravity prison sphere.

She watched in helpless horror as all the cells in the facility opened up and swarms of prisoners flew out, reveling in their liberation, attacking guards, robots, and even each other in a raging squall of weightless violence. A raucous cacophony erupted as hundreds of the galaxy's most vicious criminals unleashed decades of unquenched bloodlust, with claws, tentacles and teeth mauling one another indiscriminately. As Harleen sailed towards the central observation tower, she looked back towards her point of entry. The masked Garthling was barreling toward her, casually knocking prisoners out of his way. He exuded a temperament of calculating calm in contrast to the savagery all around him, as if he were the eye of this barbaric hurricane.

He was upon her once more, pinning Harleen to the roof of the central guard tower, his eyes burrowing into her.

"I will explain this one time, good doctor," said the Garthling in a grave tone. "I am no one's client."

"What are you then?" Harleen said through clenched teeth, barely masking the panic in her voice.

"You may refer to me as Bane," the Garthling replied.

With that, Bane scooped up Dr. Quinzel in his massive palm and leapt up, towards the north end of the spherical panopticon. They were greeted by the sight of a team of Paha mercenaries setting charges around a massive, circular door. As the mercenaries detonated their charges, Harleen gasped in horror with the realization of where they were headed: towards the Arkham wing, towards patient zero.

Atop Gaath'm City's police headquarters, a spectacled, mustached neo-chimpanzee stood idly by and allowed the building's communication lasers to conveniently malfunction, displaying a shape on the face of Gaath'm's nearest moon that just happened to resemble the red outline of a bat. It spoke to the city's desperation that officials would display such cognitive dissonance concerning cooperation with an anonymous one-man paramilitary.

"If this is about Selinakyl's break-in at the North Gaath'm Museum, I already have the situation under control," said Batman's voice from behind the newly appointed simian police commissioner.

Jim Gordon smiled wryly as he turned to meet his first true ally. "Keep this up and you'll put me out of business," he joked.

"If we don't act quickly, that trend could be easily reversed," the Batman replied grimly. "We have bigger problems right now."

"As always…" Gordon sighed, disappointed but unsurprised.

Batman continued, "A mercenary called Bane is leading a prison break at Blackgate."

"I've heard of him. He's some kind of Garthling gone bad, right?" Gordon said as he pulled an e-cigar from his jacket pocket.

"Born bad, according to underworld legend. He's supposed to have grown up and escaped from the Rothan's secret slave colony for Terran apostates."

"You mean that world that got the Rothan served with a writ of extermination?"

"Correct. Unfortunately, the writ didn't come soon enough to prevent the creation of this monster. The only thing worse is who I think he intends to free."

Gordon's eyes widened with terror. "We need to get every available unit out there now!"

"I'm already on my way to the transfer point." Batman said before his holographic representation blinked out of existence.

"Some day I'll get used to that…" muttered Gordon as he pulled out his mobile.

"I'm a little surprised nobody figured it out sooner," Selinakyl spoke conversationally, trying to fill the silence as the Batwing sped through hyperspace. "I mean, why wouldn't anyone expect a kid who saw his parents murdered, then was raised by an artificial intelligence named Alfred, to turn out a little different?"

Batman said nothing.

Selinakyl continued, "I guess we can't all be as proficient a detective as you. I've got to admit, it was pretty impressive how you deduced that the schematics I sold were of Blackgate."

"Nobody escapes Blackgate without help from outside," Batman said at last. "Criminals rarely do anything for free, and the prison's schematics were the most valuable item you could obtain in there."

"Yeah, well, Bane's still going to think I told you about the operation, and kill Holly," the Tymbrimi replied with a tone of resentment in her voice and the glyph to match it.

"Which gives you all the more reason to help me stop Bane."

"Why should I help you?" she snapped back. "You're the one he wants, I should just deliver you to him."

"You have no idea what you've done, do you?" said Batman quietly.

Selinakyl signed a glyph of mild confusion, which Batman detected with his cowl's psi-amplifier.

He sighed and continued, "Did you ever take a guess as to who patient zero of the Arkham wing might be?"

"Stop! Are you out of your mind? Don't you know how many people he's killed?" Harleen pleaded as Bane's mercenaries dragged her across the bridge to patient zero's seal.

"Of course I know who this is," Bane said casually. "It gives us all the more reason to be confident that Batman will arrive to save the day."

"But why would you want-"

"For study," Bane interrupted as he firmly held Harleen's face in front of the retina scanner. The colossal circular seal rolled aside to reveal a slender life form encased in tapered, elongated globule of solidified cryo-gel. One of the Paha promptly strode up to the adjacent control panel and entered commands to begin the process of awakening patient zero, more commonly known as the Joker.

The Joker was at one time a Tymbrimi, before some unknown event turned his mane green and drove him to such madness that he tore off the empathy tendrils of his corona and burned their roots. Now Harleen was about to meet him, not through the controlled filter of her psychic subconscious probing devices, but in the flesh, face to face, mind to madness.

When the cryo-gel had receded sufficiently, the Joker groaned and held his head as if fatigued. The Paha operating the controls approached the Joker to lend assistance. Before anyone had time to react, the Joker suddenly detached a nearby hose carrying cryo-gas and froze the Paha's arm. The amphibious mercenary cried out in pain, but was cut short when the Joker snapped off the Paha's arm and stabbed him through the neck with a frozen shard of his own bone.

"Ta-daaa!" exclaimed the deranged being with a manic smile.

"You may dispose of the doctor, she is no longer needed," said Bane to the mercenary restraining Harleen. A sob escape the psychiatrist as Bane calmly approached the Joker, casually stepping over the gurgling, dying Paha.

In the passenger seat of the Batwing, Selinakyl sat in silence, staring blankly into the warped spacetime around her as the tendrils of her corona unconsciously weaved a glyph she had not made in many years: Saamnibulon, the glyph of guilt.

Part three

Tears of despair flowed down Harleen's face as she felt the barrel of a Paha marcenary's plasma rifle press against her temple. Just as she breathed what she expected to be her last, warm blood splashed on her face as her executioner fell to the ground. She opened her eyes in surprise and looked down to see yet another dead henchman, this one with his colleague's bone shard sticking out of his right eye. Harleen looked back up in confusion, and was greeted by the sight of the Joker making an exaggerated, theatrical bow. Then, in spite of all the gruesome violence she had just witnessed, Harleen giggled, and then blushed at her inappropriate reaction.

The Joker stood back up and looked Bane in the eye. "Gratitude costs nothing, you know."

"This is my plan. She was merely a tool," replied Bane.

"No deals if the doc dies," insisted the Joker.

"She may become a liability…" Bane trailed off as the Joker strode to the body of Harleen's would-be executioner. The mad sophont picked up the plasma rifle and held it to his chin.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" the Joker grinned.

Harleen was perplexed. None of this behavior fit the profile of the Joker that she had constructed. On top of this, she found herself uncomfortably flattered…

Bane gave an annoyed sigh. "If you insist, but we mustn't waste anymore time. Authorities will be arriving shortly. More importantly, so will Batman."

Blackgate's basic layout consisted of a circle punctuated on either side in four equally spaced spots by convex hemispheres that contained one of the prison's panopticons. The feature that stood out to Selinakyl the most, however, was the security control tower atop the command hub in the center of the circle, her target.

The plan was relatively straightforward: Batman and Selinakyl would employ their hacking skills in the control tower to bring the prison's security systems back online and lockdown the facility. Then it would just be a matter of tracking down the Joker, which typically involved following a trail of bodies.

"The plan is pretty solid. I should have no trouble finding my way to the control tower," said Selinakyl. "But there's one thing I'm not clear about: how exactly are we getting in there?"

"Bane's mercenaries have agreed to let a small team of medics into the facility. I'm putting the batwing into stealth mode and we'll sneak in behind them when they open the docking bay."

Bane strode swiftly into the control room, dragging Holly Robinson with him as she kicked and struggled in vain. The Joker was lounging in front of the central holo-tank with Dr. Quinzel when Bane arrived. He had been trying for the last half hour to make Harleen laugh as she had in the Arkham wing. He had told her every twisted joke he knew but to no avail.

"She's got her guard up this time," the Joker thought to himself. Despite the fact that he had burned off his corona long ago, Joker could sense something in her. There was something about her that made him wonder if there wasn't more to her than the earnest young resident that had probed his mind while he was in stasis, some part of her that she wasn't quite comfortable with. The Joker wanted very much to become acquainted with that part. "It's only fair, after all the time she spent trying to make me open up," Joker silently mused. Just as he was about to try out a dead baby joke, Joker noticed Bane strolling towards him.

"Oh, Mr. Kong, you're back! What have you got for me now?" said Joker as he stood up. "Another blonde? You know, I'm quite satisfied with the one I've got now."

Bane shoved the Joker back down into his lounge chair. "Do shut up. There is work to be done." Bane glanced at a blinking dot in the holo-tank. "I assume that is the medical team?" he asked one of the mercenaries at the controls.

"Yes sir," The Paha replied. "Shall I allow them to board?"

"No. Aim one of the plasma turrets at the transport. Allow it power up to maximum strength before firing."

"Ooh, good thinking!" Joker smiled. Bane said nothing and continued to watch the display. Then, just as the turret was about to reach full strength, its avatar suddenly vanished from the display.

"That's weird," grunted the Paha. "The turret just randomly went dead. I'll try again with a different one."

"That won't be necessary," Bane said casually. "Allow them to dock." The Garthling turned to face the Joker. "You come with me. Now that Batman is here, we have one final preparation."

Batman and Selinakyl silently dropped down from the cloaked Batwing and onto the hull of the medical transport. Batman stayed hidden with his suite's cloaking device, while Selinakyl kept any security detail from noticing her by sending out some of her more routine mousers.

"You look distracted. What's on your mind, Selinakyl?" Batman asked bluntly.

"Holly's here. I'm kenning her aura right now. She's afraid." She said in a distant tone.

"Stay focused. We'll resolve this later."

Just as Batman finished his sentence, a green flash erupted on the floor of the docking bay. When everyone's eyes were done readjusting, the Joker appeared in hologram in front of the undocking medical team.

"I'm sure you all have a lot on your mind about all the death, rampant violence and other I atrocities I was gracious enough to give you " Joker rambled. "So I figured we could offset all this, with a little game!

Another hologram appeared next to Joker. It appeared to be Holly Robinson, laying on the ground and tightly bound.

"She's my new lab assistant, and she'll be helping me do experiments with a new happy gas I've been working on. See if you can find us before its too late," Joker laughed with scorn.

Batman turned to Selinakyl to gauge her reaction to the Joker's provocation, but she had already vanished.

The holo-tank was now the only light source in the prison's security command center, and Bane it's only occupant. Oblivious to the splendor of the stars around him, Bane sat cross-legged in front of the holo-screen, entranced by the display. He was studying something much more interesting: his prey.

Selinakyl had served her purpose as his unwitting instrument, and could now be disregarded and left to the Joker's devices. Bane, after years of training, study and planning, was alone at last with his most prized game; the Batman

The famed vigilante had always been able to rely on his suit's myriad stealth technologies to render him undetectable to nearly all scanners, but the blinking signal in the holo-tank proved that was no longer the case. Bane watched intently as the blinking dot snuck past roomfuls of guards. Every now and then their heart monitors would indicate one of them had lost consciousness. As expected, Batman's signal would stall for a bit as he broke up inmate brawls. He would then resume his brisk-yet-stealthy infiltration of the prison, ignorant to the intense study being given to him.

The Joker grinned in amusement at the heartbeat monitor display as yet another henchman flat-lined. Despite this amusement, Joker couldn't help but be confused by his foe's drastically uncharacteristic behavior. He was certainly pleased to see that Batman had finally joined in on the fun of killing sapient beings, but was nonetheless at a loss to explain why the dark knight had decided to cross that line now of all times.

"Say, Holly, I don't mean to pry," Joker said to his hostage. "But you and the big bad bat wouldn't have happened to had some type of 'fling', as you humans say, while I was on ice?"

Holly stopped grunting and struggling against her bonds to raise an incredulous eyebrow at the Joker.

"Well, it was worth a shot," the Joker muttered to himself as he turned back to monitor his antithesis' progress. Just then, Dr. Quinzel mumbled something while making adjustments to the new gas mixture. "Oh-ho, so you can talk after all!" exclaimed the Joker. "Care to speak up a bit sweetie?"

Harleen's armed minder stepped aside as she turned away from her forced work, blushing once again, to address her captor.

"I-I was just sayin'," Harleen stammered timidly, "m-maybe it's not Batman that's comin' for her, you know? It's probably someone close to her."

Without hesitation, the Joker walked up to Dr. Quinzel and gave her a human kiss on the cheek. "You're brilliant, doctor," he said. Harleen clenched her jaw with all her strength to suppress another giggle, although she couldn't help but blush. For a homicidally insane Tymbrimi mutant, the Joker could be surprisingly charming.

The Joker wasted no time in replacing Holly's gag with a breathing mask connected to a tank of his new formula. He then activated the overhead announcement system for the sector of Blackgate he was in.

"Selinakyl, what an unexpected pleasure," Joker chuckled into the receiver. "If you don't want Ms. Robinson to start huffing the party favors without you, I suggest you show yourself in the atmospheric control room without delay."

"If you say so," said a familiar Tymbrimi female voice from above. The Joker spun around just in time to see Selinakyl drop from the ceiling and lock her legs around the armed guard's neck, hastily snapping it with a flex of her gheer infused muscles. She promptly made her way towards the Joker, brandishing her claws and barring her teeth.

"Hold on just a dura now," Joker said as he hovered his hand above the gas- release switch.

"Don't even think about it, you fucking freak," Selinakyl hissed.

"Oh really," the Joker mocked Selinakyl. "What'll you do? Un-kill her?"

Selinakyl stopped in her tracks and collected herself. "There is one thing I can do," she said as the tendrils of her corona began to rhythmically wave in the Joker's direction.

"Oh come on!" laughed the Joker sardonically. "You're seriously going to try and kenn me? The last Tymbrimi psychologist to do that committed suicide."

"Much like yourself, I'm no ordinary Tymbrimi," Selinakyl shot back.

"This could be fun…" The Joker grinned, folded his arms, and leaned back in amused anticipation.

Part 4

After Batman's tedious climb up the elevator shaft to avoid detection, the empty security center was rather anti-climatic. He cautiously made his way towards the central holo-tank, expecting an ambush at any moment, but his scanners revealed nothing.

When he got to the central terminal, Batman found it surprisingly easy to access the mainframe. His surprise turned to confused suspicion when he saw that all of the security systems had been restored to their original settings.

Without warning, Bane's voice came from behind Batman. "I needed to restore some semblance of order to this facility to make sure that our combat will proceed undisturbed, Mr. Wayne."

Batman spun around to face his enemy, and was quite startled to see how close Bane had managed to get before revealing himself. "Bane! How did you avoid my scanners?"

"In much the same way as I took over this prison, Mr. Wayne," answered Bane. "I took the liberty of entering your residence while you were out tending to a recent disturbance created by my agents. I located and infiltrated your bunker, then downloaded the programming schematics for your suite. I used that data to create a viral program that would disable your suite's scanners upon my activation signal." Bane held up a small remote. "I then encrypted it in the form of the Jophur's genome, which you then uploaded when you used your gauntlet's data port to analyze that cube you intercepted. You need not worry too much, though, for I left your suite's strength enhancements in place."

Batman felt like a supernova had just hit him. Beneath that feeling of overwhelming shock, however, something else stirred. It was something Batman hadn't experienced in many years: fear.

The moment he felt it, Batman reflexively gritted his teeth and tried to suppress the fear. He couldn't afford to panic now. So he did what he had been doing since the start of his crime-fighting career, and turned the fear into anger. In an instant, Batman was delivering blow after blow to Bane's face and torso. He poured all his force into each strike, but Bane simply took the beating, stumbling back occasionally. After about half a minute, Bane grew bored and made his first move.

In one split second, Bane engulfed Batman's fist in his own, and delivered a quick punch to Batman's head. Bruce couldn't recall even feeling the blow, but was still immediately stunned and disoriented, his vision blurring and his hearing muffled. A sudden, blunt strike to Bruce's solar plexus snapped him out of this daze, only to make him double over, gasping for breath.

Bane sauntered over to the opposite side of the holo-tank as Bruce lay writhing on the floor. After entering a command into the controls, a circle opened in the floor surrounding the terminal, and the central section of the security center began to descend down a shaft.

Bane spoke as Bruce pulled himself to his feet. "I have activated one of the prison's security features. It was meant to take the core security terminal to a safer location should the facility ever fall under external attack; the exercise yard. I found it to be a suitable place to host our affray, providing us with sufficient opportunities to demonstrate our talents." As Bane spoke, the two Terrans circled each other around the holo-display as it descended into the depths of the prison, like two ancient warriors of humanity's ancestors, stalking one another by the light of the newly mastered fire.

"I have instructed my subordinates to set a perimeter around the exercise grounds to ward off any interference from law enforcement," Bane continued. "By my calculations, they will be able to keep them at bay more than long enough for me to break you."

Bruce continued to glare at Bane, and then he finally spoke. "What is it you want with me, exactly?" demanded Bruce, "A normal hired gun doesn't spend as much time as you did studying their prey and arranging elaborate traps. Your behavior is obsessive."

Bane gave a short chuckle. "My motive is actually quite simple, Mr. Wayne." As Bane spoke, the walls of the elevator shaft ended and gave way to the sight of a vast exercise yard. The expanse had been walled of into several sections to accommodate the diverse beings that inhabited Blackgate, giving it the appearance of a labyrinth. Only with this labyrinth, it was the hero who was imprisoned and being hunted by the Minotaur.

"You see, even on the prison world for Danek apostates that I call home, the legend of the Batman has spread among the populace," continued Bane. "I made a vow to achieve the same level of renown in the galactic underworld as you have, and the most efficient way to accomplish that goal is to be known as the one sophont who broke the Bat." The security command platform locked in place atop the central observation tower. "In a way, one could say that you were my inspiration."  
Bruce felt a surge of wrath stir within him at that statement. He shot a teargas pellet into Bane's face then launched himself at him. His assault was cut short, however, as Bane's open palm slammed into Bruce's chest, intercepting his attack and launching him backwards into the complex bellow. Bane lumbered to the edge of the platform, tracking his prey, effortlessly blinking the teargas from his eyes. He was a being who's childhood mentors were pain and suffering, and was not about to be impeded by non-lethal tactics meant for crude rioters.

Every inch of Bruce's body ached as he pulled himself from the collapsed mess of the Kro-ghen exercise apparatus he had crashed into. Judging by the sharp pains in his chest, Bane had broken about five of his ribs with that one shove. " _So much for body armor,"_ Bruce thought to himself.

Bruce glanced up at the observation platform to see that it was deserted. Bane was down in the darkness with him now, and he needed to think fast. Bruce ducked under the shelter of a nearby weighing station and began to assess his surroundings, trying to predict his enemy's direction of approach. His strategic efforts proved futile as the structure crashed down above him, giving him a split second to dive out of the way and towards the cover of a darkened corridor.

Bruce's spring towards safety was abruptly stopped as he slammed face first into some massive obstacle and fell on his back. He looked up in a daze just in time to see Bane's mighty form step out of the shadows, and barely managed to roll out of the way in time to avoid the great ape's massive boot as it stomped into the spot where his head had just been.

Thinking fast, Bruce sent a focused mini-tractor beam from his fingertip towards the wreckage of the exercise machine that now lay behind Bane and pulled it forward, smashing it into Bane's head.

As his opponent staggered in a daze, Bruce used the opportunity to place some desperately needed distance between them. He only managed to make it about a hundred meters when then floor began to tremble. Bruce spun around to see the Garthling sprinting towards him. There was no way he could simply outrun a being this fast, so Bruce activated a turret on his right gauntlet and began firing small globules of folded time at the charging giant. It was no use. Bane effortlessly sidestepped each round, and before Bruce could react, Bane's hand snapped shut around his right arm and squeezed.

A crunch of bone and metal sounded throughout the facility, and with it, a howl of human agony that even the battle hardened mercenaries engaging the police at the barricaded entrances found unsettling. Bruce's shriek was quickly silenced as his nemesis' other hand covered his mouth and wrapped around his neck.

" _How can he… he's just… faster… stronger…"_ Bruce thought to himself as his body numbed and his vision began to go dark. Then, in a desperate burst of adrenal clarity, Bruce brought his legs up, clicked his boots together and activated an antigravity micro-burst, freeing himself from Bane's lethal grip. The antigrav pulse sent Bruce a full kilometer through the air, over several dividing barriers and into the exercise facility's unarmed combat arena.

" _How fitting,"_ thought the armored vigilante, softening his descent with his glide wings. Bruce looked down at his mangled forearm. The grisly sight of the protruding bone coupled with the excruciating pain would have made any normal human faint. However, Bruce was no normal human. Bane would soon regain his bearings and be upon him once more, but Bruce couldn't afford to inhibit his reactions with anesthetic. Bruce took several deep breaths, employing a pain reducing meditative technique as he pushed his bones back into place, then applied medical foam.

Just as the foam finished hardening, a roar of primal rage sounded throughout the facility. The roar was followed by a crashing sound, then another, this one closer, as Bane plowed through the barriers.

" _I can see you still have your sense of direction,"_ Bruce grimly mused to himself. Bane would be at the arena soon. The antigrav pulse had almost drained his suite's power reserves, but this was not the time to conserve resources. Bruce activated the electric stun system in his gloves, raising its output to levels that would be lethal for most humanoids.

Bane crashed through the final barrier between him and his prey. A feeling of triumph pervaded him when he laid eyes upon Bruce, who stood in a pose of futile defiance. Bane leaped at his foe, bringing down his fist like a muscle bound meteorite.

Then, in that last fraction of a second before impact, Bruce leapt up, grabbed Bane's fist with one hand, pulled himself up, forward, and delivered a fistful of lightening to the Garthling's cortex.

Bane fell to the ground, feeling like his head were about to break open. As he fought to maintain awareness, his body was jolted again and again by the shock from Batman's fists. Underneath this barrage of electrical torment, however, Bane calmly detached himself from the pain, assumed a defensive posture, and entered a command into the device on his forearm.

With a sudden surge of renewed vigor, Bane stood up and caught both of Bruce's fists, crushing the shock devices as well as most of the bones on Bruce's hands.

Bruce writhed and struggled in pain. Bane delivered a quick kick to Bruce's knee, forcing him to the ground. This was it. He had tried everything. Bruce was done for. Something heavy pressed against the small of Bruce's back. It was most likely Bane's knee. As Bruce lay pinned helplessly to the floor, two mighty simian hands grasped his arms and began to pull his upper body backwards, increasing the strain on his spine. As Bruce's armor crunched beneath Bane's weight, his whole body was overwhelmed by excruciating pain, filling his mind with unbidden images of his spinal column separating in two.

Without explanation, a high-pitched yelp sounded behind Bruce and he was suddenly released. His head swimming as he struggled to maintain awareness, Batman propped himself up on his elbows, and turned his head to see what had happened. The absurd site of Bane curled up on the floor, holding his genitals, greeted him.

A familiar, hysterical cackling drowned out Bane's groans as a slim, green haired humanoid stepped out from behind him.

"Oh Bane," chuckled the Joker. "I must say, it's rather disappointing to see that, after all that careful planning and preparation, you somehow forgot to guard your family jewels!"

The Joker then pulled out a small gas canister with a breathing mask attached to it, lifted Bane's mask, and pressed the canister to his face. "Maybe some of my new medicine can cheer you up, haha!"

Bane gasped and went rigid. Then, in one split second, Bane's hand snapped shut around the Joker, and began to repeatedly slam him against the ground like a rag-doll. The Joker only continued to laugh.

"What's happening? What's come over him?" said a human female voice.

"Joker's toxin reacted with Bane's stabilizing steroid and reduced him to a pre-sapient state," a Tymbrimi voice answered. It was Selinakyl.

Batman could hear the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance. It was drawing closer.

"Shit! So we only made things worse?" asked the human. Batman could now see that it was Holly Robinson.

"Not quite," responded Selinakyl. "In his pre-sapient state, Bane has let all his well honed psychic defenses down. I've been kenning him like an open book. It's given me a pretty good idea of what makes him tick. But you need to get Batman to his cruiser. Bane really did a number on him. I'll meet you there."

"What about Joker."

"His mutation gives him a cartoon-like elasticity. He'll live, unfortunately."

"Good luck, Sel," Holly said as she began dragging Batman away from the action. It was at this point that Bruce's willpower gave out, and he finally lost consciousness.

By now, the battle between law enforcement and Bane's mercenaries had reached the perimeter of the arena. The Paha mercs were growing more desperate, wondering why their boss wouldn't intervene so they could make an escape.

Selinakyl gingerly stepped towards the enraged gorilla. The atavistic ape continued to thrash around the Joker, who was now unconscious and half dead, but still continued to smile.

After a final bit of fine-tuning, Selinakyl released her latest mouser and got to work on Bane. An unbidden calm came over the gorilla. He let the Joker's limp, mangled body down, lifted his head and surveyed his surroundings. Then he saw her. Not the Tymbrimi thief Selinakyl, but the one sophont he had ever cared about; his mother.

Selinakyl leaned towards Bane, stroking his face and whispering in his ear. "Shh, it's alright sweetie. Mommy is here. Everything's going too be fine."

Now she drew his attention to the battle surrounding them, and guided his gaze towards the Paha mercs, who now appeared as Rothan to him. "See all those mean Rothan, honey?" Selinakyl spoke calmly, soothingly. "They're trying to take mommy away from you again," she continued as she climbed onto his shoulders. "We don't want that do we, sweetie?"

With that, the broken beast stood up and lurched towards the gunfight. The mercenaries cheered now that their leader had finally come their aid. Their expressions turned to horror, however, when he crushed one of them beneath his mighty fist.

Once Bane had finished dispatching the last of his former henchmen, the police could only stand in awe at the sight of the terrifying primate who now knelt so tame and innocent before Selinakyl as she stroked him affectionately.

"You've been such a good boy," she spoke gently as her hand made its way to the back of the gorilla's head. Gheer hormones flowed to her muscles as she laid a kiss on Bane's forehead "But I'm afraid it's time for bed." Bane's expression changed from contented bliss to slight confusion, but before he could react any further, Selinakyl ripped the metallic nozzle from the back of his skull in one clean jerk. Bane instantly lost consciousness and fell to the floor, convulsing violently and foaming at the mouth. Selinakyl walked away from the battlefield, content and carefree. The police swarmed around the defeated figure of Bane, paying no attention to the Tymbrimi cat burglar. Mousers were very useful little glyphs.

Part 5

"So, I understand the part about Bane being the victim of unauthorized genetic experimentation, how he required that steroid delivery apparatus in his spine, and how it enhanced his physical endurance," said Bruce from his bed in the Bat-cave's medical wing. "But explain to me again: how did you convince the Joker to give you this information? How did you convince him to help save me?"

"I thought I just explained this," sighed Selinakyl. "Alfred, are you sure he's going to be alright?"

"Oh, I'm quite sure," said the humanoid machine that was monitoring Bruce's vital's. "After all, it's only a dislocated vertebrae, broken ribs, compound wrist fractures, broken fingers and a sprained knee. All in a day's work for master Bruce. Nothing that can't be fixed with a judicious application of stem cells and micro-focused time dilation."

Selinakyl and Bruce shared a brief chuckle, which was cut short as Bruce cringed at the pain in his ribs.

"When you get down to it, after giving his mind as much probing I could manage," continued Selinakyl, "I learned that Joker simply thinks you're too much fun for him to allow you to die. With that insight, I was able to convince him to betray Bane. I know, it doesn't make much sense…"

"With the Joker, it makes perfect sense," Bruce said darkly.

"Hey, at least all those freaks are locked up again," replied Selinakyl.

"This still leaves us with the problem of my secret identity."

"Bane will be lucky if he even remembers his own name, and I made Holly wait in the vehicle." Selinakyl assured him.

"That still leaves you."

Selinakyl grinned slyly. "Well then, I guess this means I'll always have someone to call when I get into a bind."

As she began to walk away, Bruce felt a strange sense of calm come over him. It must be a psi-glyph, but this was a new one. It almost felt as if he had been… nuzzled? The question remained unanswered as Bruce fell into a deep sleep.

Bruce jolted awake a few hours later. "Alfred!" he shouted.

"What's the trouble, Master Bruce?"

"How did Selinakyl bring me here?"

"I believe she used the Batwing's auto-nav system."

"But how did she leave?"

"…Oh dear…" said Alfred, the eyes on his facial hologram casting down and to the side. "It seems I neglected monitor my security subroutines while tending to your severe injuries."

"God damn it," muttered Bruce.

Somewhere in the starry expanse above Gaath'm, the laughter of two females, one Tymbrimi and one human, filled the cockpit of the Batwing.


End file.
